Skeem

{{Infobox film

| name = Skeem

| image = Skeem poster.jpg

| caption = Film poster

| director = Tim Greene

| producer = Tim Greene

| starring = Wandile Molebatsi

Kurt Schoonraad

Lilani Prinston

| writer = Tim Greene

| distributor =

| released = {{Film date|2011}}

| runtime = 111 Minutes

| country = South Africa

| language = English

| budget = R 1.2 Million

| gross = $71, 505

| studio =

}}

Skeem is a 2011 South African movie that was written and directed by Tim Greene.{{Cite web|url=https://www.timeslive.co.za/tshisa-live/tshisa-live/2011-10-28-directors-chat-tim-greene/|title=Director's Chat|website=Tim Greene|language=en|access-date=2019-01-16|archive-date=30 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201130080349/https://www.timeslive.co.za/tshisa-live/tshisa-live/2011-10-28-directors-chat-tim-greene/|url-status=live}} It premiered on 16 October 2011 at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, where it won the Audience's Choice Award,{{Cite news|url=https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/entertainment/2011-10-24-sa-film-skeem-scoops-international-award/|title=SA film Skeem scoops international award|date=24 October 2011|work=The Sowetan|access-date=28 November 2018|archive-date=30 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201130041947/https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/entertainment/2011-10-24-sa-film-skeem-scoops-international-award/|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.spling.co.za/movie-news/local-director-tim-greene-to-compete-with-worlds-best|title=Local Director, Tim Greene, to Compete with World's Best...|website=SPL!NG|access-date=2019-01-16|archive-date=10 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201210104438/http://www.spling.co.za/movie-news/local-director-tim-greene-to-compete-with-worlds-best|url-status=live}} and opened to local theaters in South Africa later that same month.{{Cite news|url=https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/saturday-star/20111029/281741266198902|title=Tim Greene schemes 'Skeem' won't be like a penance for SA audiences|last=Smith|first=Theresa|date=October 29, 2011|work=Saturday Star|access-date=16 January 2019}}

Of the film, Greene has stated that he wanted to create a film that South Africans could watch that they could be proud of and "doesn't beat them up, lash them and make them feel like watching South African films is like penance". The title track for the film, "Oons behoort mos saam", was sung by Jack Parow and EJ von Lyrik.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TSBGDQAAQBAJ&q=%22Skeem%22++Tim+Greene&pg=PA184|title=Performing Whitely in the Postcolony: Afrikaners in South African Theatrical and Public Life|last=Lewis|first=Megan|date=2016-12-01|publisher=University of Iowa Press|isbn=9781609384487|pages=583–584|language=en}}

Synopsis

The film centers on two friends who discover a cardboard cash filled with a million dollars after their car breaks down. They decide to stay at a nearby resort, where the staff and other guests quickly discover that the pair has a large amount of money, causing everyone to create plans to steal the cash.

Cast

Wandile Molebatsi as Vista
Kurt Schoonraad as Richie Rich
Lilani Prinsen as Jana
Grant Swanby as Drikus
Michelle Scott as Lizette
Kenneth Nkosi as Lucas
Rapulana Seiphemo as Nyoka

''John & John''

In 2017 Ghanain journalists reached out to Greene to check the claim by Ghanaian film maker Kofi Asamoah that he had received permission to adapt the movie. His 2017 film John & John was a wholesale, unauthorized remake of Skeem, and no such permission had been granted.{{Cite web|url=https://www.channel24.co.za/Movies/News/dude-hijacked-my-film-20170624|title=Dude hijacked my film!|last=Langa|first=Phumlani S.|date=2017-06-25|website=Channel 24|language=en|access-date=2019-01-16|archive-date=18 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200118180331/https://www.channel24.co.za/movies/news/dude-hijacked-my-film-20170624|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.peacefmonline.com/pages/showbiz/movies/201704/312091.php|title='John & John' Becomes Ghana's First Successful Film Adaptation—Beating Box Office Records (VIDEO)|website=Peace FM Online|access-date=2019-01-16|archive-date=29 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191029185324/http://www.peacefmonline.com/pages/showbiz/movies/201704/312091.php|url-status=live}} No legal action was taken, as Greene's lawyers informed him that the cost of pursuing an intellectual property case against Asamoah in time and money would not make it worthwhile.{{Cite web|url=https://www.graphic.com.gh/entertainment/tv-radio/face-off-kofi-asamoah-and-tim-greene.html|title=Face Off: Kofi Asamoah and Tim Greene|last=Doku|first=Francis|website=Graphic Online|language=en-gb|access-date=2019-01-16|archive-date=30 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201130042148/https://www.graphic.com.gh/entertainment/tv-radio/face-off-kofi-asamoah-and-tim-greene.html|url-status=live}} Asamoah claimed in public that he had received permission to adapt the movie.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nydjlive.com/kofi-asamoah-must-live-fact-took-credit-work-tim-greene/|title=Kofi Asamoah Must Live With The Fact That He Took Credit For My Work - Tim Greene|last=DONKOH|first=EBENEZER|date=2017-06-22|website=NYDJ Live|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-01-16|archive-date=30 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201130012337/https://www.nydjlive.com/kofi-asamoah-must-live-fact-took-credit-work-tim-greene/|url-status=live}} although in private he agreed to purchase the remake rights, but never followed through.

Reception

The Mail & Guardian reviewed the film alongside another South African film releasing around the same time, Khalo Matabane’s A State of Violence, stating that the two portray very different portrayals of the country and that "Skeem seems to take place in a South Africa where race is of no particular relevance, a South Africa in which all such social divisions have disappeared in the scrabble for personal gain."{{cite news |date=28 October 2011 |title=A history of violence |work=Mail & Guardian |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2011-10-28-a-history-of-violence}}

= Awards =

Audience's Choice Award at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival (2011, won){{Cite web|url=https://www.iol.co.za/the-star/local-film-skeem-beats-big-names-to-take-major-prize-1162994|title=Local film 'Skeem' beats big names to take major prize|website=The Star|language=en|access-date=2019-01-16|archive-date=12 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201212222505/https://www.iol.co.za/the-star/local-film-skeem-beats-big-names-to-take-major-prize-1162994|url-status=live}}

References

External links

{{IMDb title |1598609}}

Category:2010s English-language films

Category:English-language South African films

Category:2011 crime comedy films

Category:South African crime comedy films

Category:2010s South African films